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Author Topic: Girls Hangin out  (Read 2795 times)

Offline rayb

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Girls Hangin out
« on: May 30, 2006, 05:51:59 pm »
Today it is 89degrees and noticed them starting to congregate slowly starting from this morning when there were only a few and the temperature was 70 degrees. (A previous post of mine had them doing the same hanging around but the temp. was only 70 and we added more space. ) We have now.. SBB.. 2 deeps...excluder...one medium and two deep supers. One deep is 100% capped and the other two are about 30% liquid but uncapped.

The pictures show them at 5 PM and there is a cluster about 4" deep between the cinder blocks. They seem to file back in by morning.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p4b5058a73927f1a0b362c5fff791994d/eec14b73.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/pb8a90e3b6d5649391f05dc6a6ce3eef6/eec14b74.jpg

Question..Is this normal cooling off behavior for 89 degrees?

             ..If many of their sisters are out foraging ..why aren't they doing it also?  
   
              ..Do I need to do anything else to get them back to work?

             ..In other words..What did I not know to do to prevent this?

Thanks, Ray

Offline tillie

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2006, 08:12:06 pm »
Hi Ray,

Mine do this and even thicker every night here in Atlanta where the nights are getting hotter and hotter.  I am quite a newbee but I think this is two things:  

1.  They come out of the hive to allow the hive to cool off in the heat - less bodies inside, less heat

2.  The new brood that hasn't started foraging yet hangs out on the front porch like teenagers, bopping and washboarding and sometimes fanning the hive to build up their strength before they begin their foraging behavior - so it's a sign that you have new babies from the inside of the hive, now moved out.

 Michael B educated me that this is not a beard - at least not yet.  He looked at this
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6269/2875/640/DSC00866.jpg
and said that this was nothing to worry about.  

If you have SBB, adequate ventilation for the hive, and room to grow (empty super) then they are doing 1 or 2 above and not trying to leave.

Linda T learning more and more every day about bees

Offline Finsky

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2006, 01:59:55 am »
Seems that they have get honey and hive is full of honey.  Some bees are evaporating water from nectar and plenty of bees cannot work any more.

Open the hive
Look how crowded it is, how much they have free cells
Give 2 box free frames to them
Look into brood area how full it is and lift full food frames to upper box
Look that they have no queen cells.

Drill into box upper entrance

How many supers of boxes you have in pile?
.

Offline Michael Bush

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2006, 08:05:49 am »
In really hot weather they will always beard, but when they beard I look for ventilation (a top entrance or propping the top up and, if you have a SBB, opening the tray) and overcrowding.  If they have room in the supers and ventilation and they are still bearding, that is normal.  But often I can add a super and prop the top open and get them all to go back inside.

So just make sure you take care of room and ventilation and don't worry about it.
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Offline rayb

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2006, 05:27:47 pm »
Right now the hive consists of...2 deep supers
                                              1 medium super
                                              1 excluder
                                              2 deep brood boxes.

The lower brood box still has reasonable space remaining.
The upper brood box has lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood.
The SBB tray has been removed and I propped up the outer cover a bit for ventilation.

Should be cooler next few days. We'll see if the go back in.

Thanks, Ray.

Offline Finsky

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2006, 05:59:42 pm »
.
Quote
The lower brood box still has reasonable space remaining.
The upper brood box has lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood.
.


It is worth to  change the place of brood boxes  (=turn deeps) That prevents swarming and give more space for bees.

Offline rayb

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2006, 10:46:15 pm »
Thanks Finsky, I will swap the two brood deeps tomorrow. I placed one more super on the hive to give them more room and opened the top a little for more ventilation. We'll see tomorrow if they are all still hanging around the outside.

Thanks, Ray.

Offline Finsky

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Girls Hangin out
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2006, 01:36:11 am »
Quote from: rayb
We'll see tomorrow if they are all still hanging around the outside..


It often takes 3-4 days before they change they habbits and the ball starts working.

 

anything